As a new communications medium, Augmented Reality (AR) is changing the way we consume and share knowledge and how we express ourselves creatively. This year AR included a range of experiences from contemporary art to currency to close-captioning. As a researcher and designer working with AR for the past 13 years, here are my picks

The mysterious side-scrolling game Star Child is “definitely not” cancelled, according to Playful CEO Paul Bettner.

The statement comes after some PlayStation 4 owners on Thursday who had pre-ordered the game received a message from the PlayStation Store stating “the publisher has notified us that the game is cancelled.” A tweet posted to the official Star Child Twitter account on Friday provided a status update to the game saying that the “internal projected launch date changed, triggering a cancellation of pre-orders on PSN.”

Playful is still hard at work on Star Child! Our internal projected launch date changed, triggering a cancellation of pre-orders on PSN, but rest assured the game’s development is alive and well. We can’t wait to share more soon!

Until then, happy holidays! pic.twitter.com/NTnlb3HUIO

— Star Child (@starchildgame) December 21, 2018

Playful is the company behind Lucky’s Tale — a groundbreaking VR platformer which debuted with the Oculus Rift in 2016. They built sequel Super Lucky’s Tale as a more traditional flat-screen platformer for the Xbox One and then showed Star Child for PlayStation VR. The game is also planned to work outside VR headsets as well, but details are still sparse and we noted that Kynan Pearson, the game’s original director, lists on Twitter and LinkedIn that he left Playful at some point this year. Bettner told UploadVR the game has a new leader and “we owe the world an update.”

“How our players experience the story of Star Child is so important to us, which is why we’re being so thoughtful about what we say and how we say it,” Bettner told UploadVR. “We’re not quite ready to share more yet, but we’ll make it worthwhile when we do.”

It’s the second to last full week of 2018 (!) but the VR releases are still coming thick and fast. There’s nothing strictly traditional on the list this week, which is a very good sign for those in search of something new.

Miss last week’s releases? They’re right here. What else is to come? You can find out right here in our December games list.

Polybius, from Llamasoft
Price: $17.99 (Rift)

Jeff Minter and co’s latest trip into arcade ecstasy is this dizzying tunnel shooter that provides a true assault on the senses. It’s based on an arcade game that was pulled from locations long ago due to its overwhelming light show. As a side note; Minter previously confirmed that the PSVR version of the game was yet to make any money so, if you want to support a truly indie VR dev, now’s a good time. See also Llamasoft’s release of Minotaur Arcade this week.

Wrench, from Missing Digit
Price: $19.99 (Rift, Vive)

A different kind of car simulator. Wrench has you building and installing car engines, using VR’s position-tracked controls and accurate 3D models to provide an authentic experience. This is an Early Access release for now, but definitely something that’s worth checking out for the motorheads among us.

Dear Angelica, from Oculus Story Studio
Price: Free (Go)

Oculus Story Studio’s final and best work arrives on Go. It’s a thrilling piece, made inside Oculus Quill. It tells the story of a young girl writing to her idolized mother, an actress. The striking visuals and thoughtful approach to VR storytelling make this an absolutely essential movie.

Gun Club VR, from Binary Mill
Price: $24.99 (PSVR)

This is about as ‘what it says on the tin’ as VR gets. Gun Club VR gives you access to a wide range of pistols, rifles and more along with a host of minigames to fire them in. Not especially inspiring but, if you’ve got an itchy trigger finger while you wait to unwrap Firewall, it’s about as good as it’s going to get.

Facebook’s Oculus has launched its ‘Winter Wonderland’ sale across Rift, Go, and Gear VR, with reduced prices on dozens of VR games on the Oculus Store.

As well as the individual game sales, Facebook is also offering a ‘Chill Games Pack’ for each platform. The Rift pack contains 4 games, 2 experiences, and 1 app. The Go/GearVR pack contains 4 games and 2 experiences.

The Oculus Store team seem to have picked games that work great as demos – perfect for the holiday season where your loved ones could be trying out VR for the first time.

Best Rift Deals
Arizona Sunshine

This full fledged Rift zombie shooter game is 50% off, making it just $19.99.

When we reviewed the game we gave it 8.5/10, concluding:

Arizona Sunshine combines the narrative power of a fully-featured 4+ hour campaign mode, with the intensity of a wave-based horde mode, and then adds multiplayer to both experiences. The protagonist’s witty humor make it worth recommending on his charming personality alone, with enough depth and variety to keep people coming back for several hours. By doing so many things so well, Arizona Sunshine quickly rose to the top of the pack as the best overall zombie shooter we’ve seen yet in VR.

Even today we think it’s the best zombie shooter in VR, despite the lack of melee weapons.

ARKTIKA.1

This “AAA quality” singleplayer story shooter from the makers of Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light is rumored to be one of the largest budget VR games to date. While the presentation and polish are excellent, the gameplay is more of a mixed story.

When we reviewed the game we gave it 7/10, concluding by saying:

Arktika.1 is caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, it’s an extremely polished shooter with a longer-than-average campaign (for VR) and a structure closer to more traditional entries into the genre rather than the many wave-based alternatives available on headsets. On the other, its repetitive missions, unbalanced weapons and upgrade system and limited locomotion eventually took their toll, resulting in initially exciting levels with diminishing returns. The search for VR’s shooter king continues.

The game is 40% off, making it just $17.99

Best Go/Gear VR Deal: Thumper

This spectacular psychedelic game was received incredibly warmly on PSVR. The Oculus Go port has become one of the headset’s flagship games, getting a direct recommendation from Oculus CTO John Carmack himself.

When we reviewed it on PlayStation we gave it 9/10, concluding:

Thumper is a one-of-a-kind gaming experience. It is at first immediately familiar as an entry in the now classic rhythm game genre, but enhances virtually every aspect of the experience through brightly pulsing visuals, intense music, and nothing short of violent, visceral rhythm-based gameplay. While you can play Thumper entirely outside of VR, the experience truly shines and envelops you the most once you place a VR headset on your face. This one is not to be missed.

It’s 50% off in the Winter Wonderland sale, bringing the price to just $4.99.

What’s that? You already did your Christmas shopping? Well, hate to break it to you, but practically every big VR game is on sale right now. Sorry, wallet.

Steam, Oculus and the PlayStation Store have all launched their big end of year sales and there’s a heck of a lot to rifle through. We’ve already been through Steam’s offerings but we’ve rounded up some of the best deals for Rift and PSVR below.

Oculus

At this point Steam and Oculus’ sales largely mirror each other, but there is some stuff to take note of here. Namely, there are a few drops on Oculus exclusives; Marvel: Powers United VR is down to $31.99 and From Other Suns hits $29.99 as does Lone Echo. Standard stuff like Onward ($14.99) and Superhot VR ($18.74) also feature. To be frank it’s not a stunning sale from Oculus; you’re more likely to find what you want over on Steam. That said daily deals and bundles could sweeten the deal.

PlayStation Store

Sony has promotions going on it both US and EU stores right now, though the latter’s massive January Sale is a sight to behold. Practically every big VR game is on offer including Superhot VR for £12.99, Moss for £14.99, Downward Spiral for £7.39, Astro Bot for £19.99 and Resident Evil 7 for £12.99. If you were lucky enough to get a headset this Christmas and want to catch up on some games then do yourself a favor and check it out.

Over in the US the ongoing Winter Sale remains pretty solid. You could get Evasion for $29.99, Batman for $11.99 or Statik for $9.99.

Red Matter’s iron claws, with which you grab objects, are a fitting allegory for the wider game. They’re strong and steely, providing an authentic sensation of having a firm grasp on something. Developer Vertical Robot demonstrates that same iron grip on its handling of VR and immersion all the way through this sumptuous sci-fi short.

Here you travel to a moon orbiting Saturn amidst a prolonged Cold War against the fictional state of Volgravia. Tasked with infiltrating a top-secret base, you’ll solve puzzles and piece together the story using environmental clues as you get closer to the truth. True, the format is familiar (especially in headsets), but every element of Red Matter’s design, from the movement to the user interface to the storytelling has put VR front and center.

Take the locomotion, which mixes low-gravity space hopping and smooth movement at the player’s whim. The latter option works well but its the jumping that really stands out thanks to the context of the environment and the fact that it’s just a fun, immersive and surprisingly speedy way of getting about. It gives the exploration a welcome punchiness; rather than slowly slogging back and forth between levers and buttons you can quickly skip and hop your way over while still not breaking the immersion with a black to fade. As a result, you come to the game’s puzzles with an eager sense of discovery rather than slight dread for the busywork ahead.

Perhaps its the UI that’s the real winner, though. Red Matter has you holding a pair of interchangeable devices that can switch between claws, scanners and flashlights. Button layouts, especially on PSVR’s Move controllers where things can get tricky, are expertly mapped, providing some of the most natural interactions I’ve had with a VR controller. Look at the device and you’ll see buttons that correspond to those on your controller, doing away with the momentary confusion we can all experience. Crucially, it kept me rooted in the game’s world, rather than trying to think outside of the headset to press the right buttons.

Finally, there’s the atmosphere, which is masterfully layered on. Red Matter’s environments are intricately detailed with decorations and notes that flesh out the story in an authentic way. It’s more of a short than a fully developed narrative, and it’s a shame there isn’t more of it to see, but its ability to get right to the point is appreciated too. As the plot starts to dip into the supernatural Vertical Robot shows admirable restraint, resisting the temptation to dip into the pure horror that works so well in VR but can alienate some players. Instead, Red Matter uses its spookier elements to pile on the intrigue.

The sum of these parts is a game that’s simply a joy to be engrossed in. Granted that’s largely because Vertical Robot has stripped away elements rather than faced them head on; there’s no human characters to interact with or shootouts to panic over, but this is very much a case of less being

Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs is on the way from Resolution Games in partnership with Rovio. Details are extremely light on the title — there’s no trailer yet — with a press release saying players will “swoop in on a remote island to take on the infamous green pigs with the help of their favorite Angry Birds characters.” Yeah, that certainly sounds like an Angry Birds game.

Resolution Games also built a version of Angry Birds for the Magic Leap One AR headset and we’ve confirmed with the company, which raised investment funds earlier this year, that they are initially focused on 6DoF controls for the Isle of Pigs VR game and that they are aiming to bring the title to both standalone and and PC-based headsets.

“Angry Birds lends itself perfectly to VR, where players can experience the already highly engaging characters and gameplay mechanics in a much more tangible and immersive way,” said Tommy Palm, CEO of Resolution Games, in a prepared statement. “Just as Angry Birds was applauded for its intuitive controls and gameplay on mobile, we feel Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs will continue that legacy for VR.”

If you’re anything like me then you probably that the single free new song DLC that released last week in Beat Saber was the extent of their teased “Christmas Gifts” but you’d be wrong. As it turns out, today Beat Saber (on all platforms including Rift, Vive, Windows VR, and PSVR) is getting another free song and this time it’s the viral hit track POP/STARS from League of Legends studio Riot Games, performed by a collaboration between Madison Beer, (G)I-DLE, and Jaira Burns known in the League of Legends universe now as K/DA.

When the song first released eaerly last month it took the internet by storm. In under two months it’s already amassed over 122M views on YouTube and probably several million more across Spotify and other platforms. It’s undeniably catchy and fits the game’s signature electronic soundtrack style perfectly.

“We’ve been blown away by the reaction to ‘POP/STARS’ and the variety of amazing adaptations that content creators from both the League community and beyond have brought to life,” said Tom Ebsworth, EU Marketing Director for Riot Games in a prepared statement. “As huge Beat Saber fans ourselves, both of the game and Beat Games who share our passion for gaming and music, it was a no-brainer that this crossover needed to exist. We’re excited to give fans of the song a new way to experience it and to hear what they think!”

Interestingly, fans actually beat the official Beat Games team to the punch. There was already a modded track available for download on Beat Saver, a website for custom song uploads, that you could play inside the game. It’s been downloaded over 8,000 times already. When I asked a PR representative from Riot Games about that existing custom beat map, she said the official version had been in development since before the song even released. The official version releasing today will likely be more polished plus it will include a version for the new Expert+ difficulty setting.

“We started working with Beat Games while POP/STARS was still in production,” said the Riot Games representative. “When the two teams got together to listen to a preliminary version of POP/STARS, we immediately recognized the affinity between the song and Beat Saber. After the Worlds final performance, we were pleased to see that fans of K/DA and Beat Saber were thinking the same.”

What do you think of the news? Let us know down in the comments below and let us know what you think of the new song once you try it out!